Sweden’s stars return with eyes on Olympic spot

Apart from defending champions Italy, Sweden are the only Member Association competing in the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2025 that is represented by two Olympic gold medallists — Anna Hasselborg and Oskar Eriksson.

But unlike Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, their Italian opponents, Anna and Oskar remain a long way away from being given the nod to go on to play mixed doubles at next year’s Olympic Winter Games.

This is the first time these two have played together at this event since they won it in Stavanger, Norway in 2019. And even to get here was a major challenge for these two, with Sweden staging a winner-takes-all showdown. Anna explained, “To be selected for here, we played a triple round robin and then a best-of-five in the final — so, we’ve played a lot!”

Given the calibre of athletes that Sweden can choose from, it is surprising that — come what may at this event — Oskar and Anna are not certain what their mixed doubles future will hold next year. Oskar said, “It’s a selection by the national coach and the Olympic Committee. We need to do really well here — it’s tough to do better than Rasmus and Isabella (Wranå — 2024 gold medallists) did last year, but it also includes other results from the last two years. We’ve been very close with them in every tournament.”

Anna and Oskar with their gold medals at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2019 © World Curling / Alina Pavlyuchik

A Choice to make

Formerly, Swedish Curling Association pursued a policy of not allowing players to double up between team and mixed doubles at the Olympic Winter Games, meaning players had to choose for themselves. With mixed doubles making its Olympic debut in 2018, Oskar explained “We already had to choose between mixed doubles and team selection for 2018. That year, they didn’t want players to do both, so we both stuck with team.”

He also points out the hindsight wisdom of that decision — “Sweden didn’t qualify for mixed doubles then, so it was an easy choice!”

Anna said she chose not to try to double up in 2022, remembering, “It is possible to do both now, but in the last Olympics, I chose team too. We were in the (COVID-19) bubble then, so I didn’t want to do it.”

Oskar Eriksson at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2025 © World Curling / Anastasia Karekla

Olympics on the mind

Now the Olympic future for Anna and Oskar depends on performance — in their teams and in mixed doubles too. Thinking about how they would manage the situation should they gain selection for both disciplines, Anna said, “We would focus mostly on teams. If we both are in good shape in our teams, I think Oskar and I know each other so well, and we stick so good together, we won’t need that much practice to get things going. If we do qualify for the Olympics we can sit down and have a good overview of the whole system and just plan after that.”

She adds an important point, “It helps that, for us, the Olympics is in the same time-zone this time, so that’s one complication out of the way. We’ll probably have pre-camps in Sweden. For us, this would be one of the easiest Olympics to double-up in.”

But before all this, Anna and Oskar have got to concentrate on the job in hand — doing well at this championship.